


Nothing In A Name

by Shadokin



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-11
Updated: 2014-01-11
Packaged: 2018-01-08 09:48:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1131186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadokin/pseuds/Shadokin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Second only to survival, names were pretty important to Jack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing In A Name

Samara never told anyone her surname. Like many things, it was simply a thing of her old life she had given up. 

When Jack found this out, it bothered her. She would pick at the cubicles of her fingers thinking about it. Names were important, they had meaning. They gave a sense of identity. Samara's identity was just that of a Justicar. 

“That's not true.” Thane said to her. “She is also a mother.”

Kasumi told her to let it be. Jack told her to fuck off. 

Samara didn't say anything. She knew Jack was stressed, but she was always stressed. Samara had no way of knowing that she was indirectly causing Jack to fuss over her. 

“What are you doing?” Kasumi asked, and Jack closed out of her omni-tool as quickly as Kasumi decloaked in front of her. 

“For starters, I'm about to hurt you.”

But Kasumi only laughed. She was the only one of the ship able to sneak up on Jack's hiding hole underneath Engineering. 

“You'd have to catch me first.”

Kasumi decided to keep it to herself that she was hacking Jack's omni-tool. Especially with searches like 'what do Justicars have to give up', 'under what circumstances would an asari change their surname', and her favorite, ‘Kasumi you better not be looking through my browser history again, go away'.

When Jack finally approached Samara, it was without her usually stride. She never tiptoed around Samara exactly, but she usually held a caution in her step. 

“I’ve been thinking.” She spoke first, knowing it was only because Samara had the patience to let her. She stood off to the side, while Samara continued to glow in her sitting position in the middle of the room. Jack didn’t have to worry about meeting her eyes, and that took some of the pressure off.

The words were already catching in her throat. Shit, why did she think this was a good idea?

“Nought.” It came out cracked and broken and Jack would have hated herself if she wasn’t so relieved to get the first part out of the way.

Samara’s biotics receded, and her head turned to Jack. Eyes told things that words could never say, but Samara was a guarded trick Jack wasn’t sure she cared to figure out.

Samara waited for Jack to continue, no change in her face to suggest whether she understood what was being offered to her. Jack thought of turning around and running from the room, but she wasn’t one to run away.

She only knew how to run forward.

Samara listened to the offer. It was strange to see the subtle changes in her expression, Jack wasn’t sure they were even happening. A catch of light in the eye, a press of lips to hide a saddened smile, a twitch in the jaw. Jack didn’t know what it meant. Shit. Her chest was starting to hurt.

“This is a strange thing for you to offer.” Samara said, standing up to level herself with Jack. Jack’s fingers were twitching at her pants, pinching the fabric to distract her.

“It means nothing.” Jack said, forcing a roll of her eyes. “Literally.”

“And you wish for me to adopt your name as my own.” The lack of inquiry in her voice was clear. Samara talked like this was as simple as any conversation.

“Do you want to or not?” Jack asked, her chest tightening and voice louder.

“Samara is the only title I require.” Samara said. At least she looked disappointed by it, or Jack was seeing things weird again.

“As a Justicar, I am forsworn from any possessions.”

Was this supposed to be some sort of apology?

“Can you own nothing though?” Jack said. She was pressing, sure, but she was offering Samara something important.

Whether Samara could read her well, or Jack was just easy to read, Samara gave a tilt of her head, an odd sort of nod at her.

“This means something to you.”

Jack stared back. Thane’s words were snatched up by the bugs in her head, running about her brain in reminder.

Jack could feel the flame licking in her gut, and she hunched her shoulders. Yes, Samara wasn’t just a Justicar, and yes, it meant something to Jack, but she wasn’t about to come out and say it.

“It means nothing.” Jack said. Nought meant nothing, it was one of the reasons why she had picked the damn name. Over time though, it gained meaning. It was one of the few things Jack could call hers, and no one could take that away.

Samara bowed her head to the ground, looking at it with that pensive look that looked like every other expression Samara made. Her face hardly every changed despite being able to show so many different things and Jack hated it. She hated it because it was consist, and consistency brought about patterns, and Jack found herself learning them, able to gauge how Samara was feeling, despite showing little of anything to anyone.

“Then your offer means nothing.”

All the same, Jack was wrong. She didn’t understand Samara, didn’t care to, but there was a craving to have… anything. Not anything, but a connection maybe? Something that would explain why she sat in with Samara while she meditated, listening to her serene voice tell her stories of before she was a Justicar. Why she let herself be convinced to give meditation a try, even if it was too static and boring for her to get through. Why she bothered at all.

 _She is also a mother_.

The bugs were crawling faster in Jack’s head. Bugs that would soon turn to screams, and she’d need to retreat back to her hole to take the drugs Mordin had provided for her.  

“I can’t reject nothing.”

Jack felt her face scrunch up in confusion. What did Samara—oh.

She swallowed. The “okay” that left her throat was strangely empty. They were connected now. It was… Jack didn’t know what it was. She wasn’t glad for it, but she was significantly less pissed than she had been.

Samara, for her part, didn’t seem to share the embarrassment that was certainly evident on Jack’s face. Shit. Shit, this was fucking ridiculous.

“Good talk.” Jack said, trying to manage her normal ferocity back in her voice and stance, but found that she was unable to. Samara now shared her surname, however unofficial it was, and that… Jack never had that kind of person before.

“Would you like to stay in here for a while?” Samara asked her. Jack shook her head. This wasn’t meant to be a long conversation, and she’d rather not draw it out any longer than necessary.

Jack didn’t offer any goodbye, she just turned around and walked out of the room. 

**Author's Note:**

> I like the idea of Samara and Jack having some oddball mother/daughter-like-but-not-really interactions. I've only read two other fics were they have that sort of bond, and I wish there was more of it. And with that said, I have a lot of feelings regarding Jack and anything involving names in general (so there might be future chapters, but as of right now this is strictly a oneshot).


End file.
